Mayor Offended By Criticism of Flood Handling

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

A picture of River Road included in the City’s January 20th Flood update

Prince George, B.C. -  Harsh criticism of the City’s communication efforts during the recent flooding is not sitting well with Mayor Colin Kinsley, nor are claims by one business that City efforts to raise River Road are behind recent lay-offs.

Kinsley says claims by some of the businesses affected that there’s been a lack of communication on the City’s part are simply not true.

"We have talked with them from the beginning -- special meetings, two hours -- with two of the mill representatives.  We’ve had their liaison that they appointed from the very beginning...I was there talking to them on December the 11th, when this incident first started."

He says, "[I] drove through the entire area, so I’m quite offended by the notion that we’re not communicating with them - we’ve communicated with them ad nauseam, almost, and we did that because we felt it was important to do the best we could, but, quite frankly, in an emergency situation, we don’t have time to deal with special interest groups."  Kinsley does say, "We’ve done that and we have protected their property and we have protected their employees and there’s a lot of misinformation out there that I find quite upsetting."

On Sunday, January 13th, the president of Brink Forest Products, John Brink, released a letter he’d written to the City saying he didn’t want the City building up River Road in front of his property.  (click here, for that article)  By Thursday, he announced he had laid off 100 employees due to safety concerns over the road and ramp being constructed.  (click here for full article)

Kinsley says, "While I was there Sunday morning (Jan 13th) with our consulting engineers and a contractor, prepared to start putting the driveway access to an acceptable industrial standard to Brink’s property and he would not allow our engineers to go on his property."

"And the only reason we didn’t put the driveway in anyway -- because we have the right under the Emergency Act -- is the fire chief, I spoke with him, and they didn’t really need the access in case there [was] a fire or some other emergent situation where we had to get in there with our fire apparaatus, we had other options of getting in, so we just let it be and let him engineer his own driveway."

Meantime, a coalition uniting the Nechako River Industrial Group, the Nechako River Victims Coalition, the United Steelworkers Union and the Prince George Trucking Association announced its formation on Friday.  (click here for details)  The group hopes to have a louder voice to ensure an acceptable long-term solution to the flooding is found.

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